Putin Spokesman Says Acid Attack Won’t Hurt Bolshoi Brand

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
spokesman Dmitry Peskov said an acid attack on the Bolshoi
artistic director won’t hurt the theater’s reputation as a
cultural brand.

In a haggard appearance on state television last week,
soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko confessed to organizing the attack
that damaged the face and eyes of the theater’s director Sergei Filin, although he denied any intention to use acid in the
assault.

The Bolshoi is “an essential element of Russian culture as
a cultural, social and Russian brand,” Peskov said. The attack
“has nothing to do with the Bolshoi Theatre itself, it has to
do with people,” he added.

Dmitrichenko admitted to masterminding the assault outside
the director’s apartment building on Jan. 17, Moscow police said
in a March 6 statement, adding in a separate statement that he
was motivated by “personal animosity.” Two other men confessed
to being the driver and the assailant and all three remain in
custody after being detained last week.

Dmitrichenko, 29, has been with the Bolshoi since 2002, and
last starred as Ivan the Terrible in Sergei Prokofiev’s work of
the same name.

Investigators last month cited rivalries at the Bolshoi as
probable motives for the crime, particularly between supporters
of Filin, 42, and of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, the principal dancer.

More than 300 members of the Bolshoi ballet have come out
in defense of Dmitrichenko. In an open letter to Putin and the
media, they said the idea that the soloist was behind the crime
was “absurd.”

Moscow police said they have “a deep respect for the work
of artists of the Bolshoi” and their views and assured them
that investigators are pursuing their investigation fairly,
according to a statement on their website today.